It's pretty safe to say Sony won't be hiring actor Daniel Craig to hawk any of its Xperia Z4 smartphones, or any of its other smartphones for that matter, now or in the near future.
It's also safe to say Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) is not going to be able to put the mega data hack it suffered last year to bed anytime soon. Leaked emails are still hitting the Internet and shaking things up for SPE in a public way—not stirring—but shaking things up big time, much like how 007 likes his martinis.
The latest email leaks are tied to the production of the impending James Bond flick Spectre, which arrives in theaters on Nov. 6, with Craig reprising the Bond role for the fourth time.
In the email exchange, Sony is clearly seen as negotiating an advertising and product placement deal with Columbia Pictures and film production heads. A discussion popped up about a Sony Xperia Z4 smartphone placement in the movie.
The two emails, leaked and posted on Wikileaks, revealed that Craig's fee for using a Sony smartphone in the movie would be $5 million—and that was begrudgingly. Craig obviously felt Bond should be using the best smartphone available and not a Sony smartphone.
"BEYOND the $$ factor, there is, as you may know, a CREATIVE factor whereby Sam and Daniel don't like the Sony phone for the film (the thinking, subjectively/objectively is that James Bond only uses the 'best,' and in their minds, the Sony phone is not the 'best')," wrote Andrew Gumpert, president of Worldwide Business Affairs & Operations at Columbia Pictures, in the email.
"Having said that, David said if Sony made a fair market offer, that Barbara, armed with a 'solid' financial proposal would go to work on Sam and Daniel and get this pushed through creatively. He obviously can't guarantee that result (and he said as much), but he seemed very genuine and forthright on our call."
The "Sam" referred to is director Sam Mendes and the "Barbara" is Bond series producer Barbara Broccoli.
The email was written in response to the one sent to Gumpert by George Leon, Sony's EVP of consumer marketing, regarding product placement in the film. The interesting takeaway in the Leon email was that Leon suggested not giving Craig the $5 million fee as stipulated:
"What if we take the Daniel Craig fee and convince Sony just to pay Barbara directly 4MM for a placement fee. NO Daniel this time. We walk from him. The remaining 1MM (or LESS!) of this budget can be used to hire 'Q' instead? Her fee would have to include the right for Sony to use the 007 marks including the barrel, but no Daniel."
We're pretty sure James Bond would not be happy to read that. Craig, however, may have had an inkling regarding the product placement discussion since emails regarding the Sony phone were reported in late 2014. That report did not note Craig's clear disdain for the Sony smartphone as a Bond device.
The email leaks come as SPE continues to suffer the fallout from the disastrous data hack that hit its servers in late 2014. As the Tech Times reported, the hack turned out to be more serious than initially thought, with thousands of Social Security numbers of past and present employees being posted online, Twitter accounts hacked, thousands of emails divulged and mailboxes compromised.
The group behind the hack calls itself the Guardians of Peace or #GOP. Not only has the security breach brought financial havoc—the movie studio faces costs of up to tens of millions of dollars—but the publicity regarding leaked emails is also causing big embarrassment between SPE and actors who have worked in Sony films.
One example is a series of leaked emails exposing discussions between Sony executives regarding the "blah-ness" of Adam Sandler films.
"Although we manage to produce an innovative film once in awhile, Social Network, Moneyball, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, we continue to be saddled with the mundane, formulaic Adam Sandler films. Let's raise the bar a little on the films we produce, and inspire employees that they are working on the next Social Network," said an executive in an email.
It was originally believed North Korea was tied to the data breach since complaints from the regime regarding the comedy movie The Interview were earlier ignored. The film follows two journalists, played by James Franco and Seth Rogen, who were hired by the CIA to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. When asked if North Korea was behind the attack, officials from the country simply said: "Wait and see."
Since then, however, the North Korean government has denied involvement in the hack.
"Linking the DPRK to the Sony hacking is another fabrication targeting the country," said an unnamed North Korean diplomat. "My country publicly declared that it would follow international norms banning hacking and piracy."
#GOP claimed that if the movie were to be shown in theaters, retaliation would be disastrous. The threat was taken seriously by both SPE and the White House. In the end, the movie was released online and through streaming video services.
